ACTOR Derek is best known for playing Bernard Woolley in Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister from 1980-88, and Oscar Blaketon in Heartbeat from 1992-2010.

Father-of-two Derek, 78, lives alone near Bath after the death of his long-term partner, Jo, three years ago.

“I got the acting bug at school, but I was also into scouting, football and cricket. I left school at 15 to become an apprentice printer and joined the company’s drama group, but it was just a hobby. It was during my national service in Malta, when I was 18, that I joined an RAF theatre group and began to think of acting professionally.

“One of the sergeants said he was going to RADA after national service and I asked how I could go there, too. I made a pact with my mother that if I won a scholarship, I could become an actor; otherwise I’d go back to printing. I started at RADA in 1960 and was there with Edward Fox, Tom Courtenay, John Hurt and Ian McShane.

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Derek Fowlds now

“I started out in West End plays and my first big break was The Miracle Worker with Anna Massey in 1961. I worked with Alastair Sim and Laurence Harvey and I went from play to play, then I started to get gigs on TV and juggled both. When The Basil Brush Show came up, I didn’t think I wanted to work with a puppet, but I went to the audition and this fox jumped on my shoulder and said, ‘Hello, Mr Derek.’

“Although I loved working with Ivan Owen, who operated Basil, I never intended to do more than one series. But by then I had two small boys with my then wife and during the second series I became charmed by Basil, so I stayed for eight series and two Royal Variety Performances.

“I was offered Yes Minister in 1979 and it was a huge hit. The scripts were brilliant, and Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne and I became close friends and had so many laughs. We used to film before a live audience on a Sunday evening, which was nerve-wracking.

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Derek Fowlds at a Yes Minister gala night in 2010

We used to film before a live audience on a Sunday evening, which was nerve-wracking

Derek Fowlds

“Around that time, my agent sent me a script for Heartbeat. I’d never played a northerner on TV before, but based Oscar on my corporal in the RAF. I greased my hair back and was horrible and shouted a lot. Nick Berry [who played Nick Rowan] and I decided it wouldn’t be a success, but it was and I ended up staying for 18 series. We had glorious parties up in Yorkshire during filming and I’m still good friends with cast members Tricia Penrose, Bill Simons and Peter Benson.

“The last few years have been sad in many ways. My partner, Jo, was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and she’d always been there for me, so I didn’t work for the two years before she passed away in March 2012. We’d been together for 36 years and she made me laugh every day. Then I lost my sister, so it’s been pretty tough.

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Derek with Heartbeat cast in 1996

“I’ve had a role in Casualty and last year a friend gave me a Dictaphone to tell stories into so I could write my autobiography, which I’ve done.

“My sons Jamie, 51, and Jeremy, 47, are a great help, and I’ve got two wonderful grandsons – Jacob, 25, and Marlon, six. A few months ago Marlon said to me, ‘When I’m a man, you’ll be dead, won’t you?’ I laughed and said, ‘Well, it’s a possibility, but you’ll have a book to read about me.’”

Derek’s autobiography A Part Worth Playing is available from fantomfilms.co.uk.